Great news for coffin-sleepers!
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… it’s taken this long to break the funeral supply chain.
No it hasn’t. I was able to buy a casket online in 2001, when a sister-in-law passed away. And last year, when it was Dear Old Mom’s turn, I got this close to buying one online; it was the same model as one at the funeral home. I managed to get the funeral director to match the price. My coupon-clipping, penny-pinching Mom would’ve been proud.
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If you can find a copy read Jessica Mitford’s “The American Way of death”.
Written forty years or so ago, it will show you this fight has been going on a very long time and just how mercenary funeral homes and the industry are.
Once upon a time the Veteran’s Administration provided a flat rate basic funeral benefit arranged with local funeral homes but they lobbied hard as people tended not to buy ups and extras if they got a complete package as a death benefit so now you just get some cash,
Decades ago, I watched a funeral director rack up cost after cost as my grieving Grandfather was subtly pressured into a fairly fancy funeral for his wife. She had said her entire life she wanted to be cremated but they talked Granddad out of it in a s^*tshow that enraged me but which I could do nothing about
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Caitlyn Doughty has mentioned that book in some of her videos… I forget which one, but that’s where I’ve heard about that book.
Honestly, there is a wave of recognition around these issues, and she’s one of the folks who has helped bring this up to broader public discussion.
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